Today I saw an interesting piece of sous vide cooking equipment called Chef Touch System from KitchenAid. This concept gather a vacuum chamber sealer (a must in terms of vacuum that gives you the possibility to add liquids such as oil or a marinade in you pouch without destroying the machine) a shock freezer (very usefull and safe device if you want to keep meats in the freezer after you cooked it at low temperature) and a steam oven.

The concept of this all in one sous vide equipment gives an idea of what could look our kitchen in a close futur. The only weak point of this beautiful item is the steam oven. Why not replacing it with a PID controlled steared water bath?

Any idea of the price of the Chef Touch System and availability?

Information added October 23rd :

Thanks to N.Lavirotte, we now know the ChefTouch System is available since September in Europe. Official retail price are as follow :

-Vacuum chamber : 2,950 € incl. VAT
- Shock Freezer : 5,000 € incl. VAT
- Oven : steam ( 1,550 €) combi (1,850 € ) incl. VAT
- Kitchen high cabinet : 2,700 € incl. VAT

Total = 12,500 € (combi oven) incl. VAT (approx. 17,500 USD)

JF

The design of this equipment is fantastic but will this immersion circulator be affordable for sous vide chefs and individuals? Except this video, no information is available on the net. If you have some, feel free to tell us!

Here is the Youtube video!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jean-François

A month ago I decided to purchase a digital thermomether with a penetration probe. I had a chock when looking at prices  on internet. Price for such thermometer is usually in the range from EUR 200 to EUR 400.
Then, when I saw the Thermowoks onlineshop proposing a similarly equipment for approx. USD 110 incl. shipping to Europe…I decided very fast to make a try.

The overall price was :

• MTC, Mini Handheld Thermocouple Meter, Type K : USD 43.
• K Type Fast Response Meat Needle Probe Fitted into MPK ANSI Plug : USD 30.
• Coiled Lead Type K Extension Wire 2 Meter Plug to Socket Ansi Colour Yellow (627-741): USD 19.
• Shipping cost to Europe: approx. USD 20.

Total: USD 110.

My worry was to determine how good this thermometer is. Was it well calibrated? I asked a friend of mine if he could find a precision thermometer in order to compare its precision to the Thermoworks one.  Thanks to Bertrand.L I could find someone borrowing me the GMH-3710. He told me he purchased it here for approx?  EUR 220 excl. VAT and shipping costs. This is 3 times the price I purchased mine!

I red on internet that temperature accuracy depends of the temperature. In other words, the higher the temperature is,  the bigger the risk of inaccuracy could appear.

For the purpose of my test I tried with both the thermomethers to assess the temperature of an apple, a glass of water containeing water at 46°C and 79°C.

Above a picture of the GMH-3710

My test with an apple that was laying around in kitchen was excellent. The difference in temperature between the 2 thermometers was in the range from 0.1°C to 0.2°C only. Therefore the inside temperature of the apple was approx. 21.5°C.

The test with the 46°C water was also good with a difference of maximum 0.3°C.

I also made the test with a glass of water at 79°C. The difference of temperature was in the range from 0.3°C to 0.4°C.

To sum up : The Thermoworks digital thermometer seems to work very well and is price competitive. I am in a hurry to try it while cooking sous vide!

Jean-François

Remember end August Fresh Meals Solutions announced the launch (end 2009) of the FreshMealsMagic.
In the meantime Frank Hsu (you secretive thing!) has put up the SousVideMagic 1500D for sale.

What is new with the SousVideMagic 1500D compared to the 1500 B/C versions?

• The power capacity has been raised from 2,000 W to 3,000 W
• 2 digit screens are now available (one for the temperature and one for the timer)
• Possibility to control the temperature of a large pot, up to 35 L

The price of te SousVideMagic 1500D is still very competitive USD 159!
For your information the global cost for the SousVideMagic 1500D to be sent to Europe should be around:

• SousVideMagic 1500D: USD 159 + USD 25 = USD 184 incl. sending to Europe
• Custom duties: EUR 35
• Basic rice cooker: EUR 45
• Input power cord and socket adaptor: approx EUR 16.

Grant total (1 EUR = 1.5 USD): EUR 218

Frank, what about the FreshMealsMagic Bubbler? When will you launch it?

Jean-François

I received several questions of people interested by the swid of addelice. Their main worry was to determine if the swid is for professional purposes or for home cooks. To all of them I replied and said that I am not a professional and therefore don’t know their expectations as a professional. I realized that I tried the swid in  3.5 litres and 8.5 litres pots only. The manual of the swid indicates that the stability of the temperature is optimized up to 20 litres.

I went inside my uncle cellar and found an Ikea plastic box (€ 3) that I filled with 20 litres water.

I had to face a problem with the plastic container which is very flexible. Attaching the swid with the clamp to the container was not possible as the swid was too heavy. Therefore I found a glass cutting board that was perfectly the hight of the container. I put this board between the plastic container and the clamp. This generated an excellent stability for the swid to be attached.

I set the swid at 55°C only because I am not realy trusting in the Ikea container that could melt or not resit to higher temperatures. The manual of the swid indicates the Adaptive PID controller (that assesses the amount of the water i n the pot) was optimized if the starting temperature is at least 15°C lower than the target temperature. It took 15 minutes to heat the water from 25°C to 55°C and, after 5 more minute,s the stability of the water bath was excellent.

I decided to make an addition test: immersing a bottle of cold water (3°C) simulating a cold pouch in a water bath.

It worked perfectly.

To sum up I confirm the swid thermal circulator can heat easily a 20 litres water bath.

Jean-François

Click here to view the embedded video.

Addélice confirmed the swid will be available this week.

Jean-François

I was very attracted by the design of the Frisper when I saw it for the first time. The vacuum machine from Oliso is definitely a very cute and compact device.

You know my philosophy now …if I see something new, you have to try it!

First of all lets make a fast comparison between the LAVA 100 vacuum machine I purchased some months ago and the Frisper from Oliso. The LAVA 100 is a powerful appliance with a “safety box” but its price is 3 times the price of the Frisper (EUR 245 to be compared to approx. EUR 80). On the other hand the Frisper is really less powerful than the LAVA 100 and the price of the specific plastic pouches that must be used with it is significantly higher compared to “normal pouches” (without any zip). Pouches can usually be purchased in the range from EUR 0.11 to EUR 0.50 (if purchased in a pack of 50 or 100 pieces). Plastic pouches used with the Frisper can be sold in a pack of 20 bags for a price of approx. EUR 1 per bag. These bags a theoretically re-usable 8 times but this possibility id useless in the frame of sous vide cooking as bags should not be re-used for food safety reasons.

Therefore the main question is “can the Frisper vacuums enough for sous vide cooking purposes”. Please have a look of this previous post illustrating their is no need of a professional vacuum machine to cook sous vide.

I confirm the Frisper is good enough. For my try I took 2 chicken legs (35 mm thick), added a little bit of marinade, vacuumed them with the Frisper and cooked them at 66°C during 75 minutes.

Last time I cooked chicken legs sous vide (30 mm thick) I decided to comply with Douglas Baldwin time and temperature table (64°C during 60 minutes). The result was good but a little bit bloody on some parts. Click here to read the post mentioning that point.

This time I have decided to raise slightly the temperature and the cooking time.

The texture was again very good and the chicken not bloody anymore. Nevertheless the chicken was still a bit too pinkish for my girlfriend taste. I guess next time will be the good one.

In order to compare with the bloody chicken leg I cooked during my first experiment, find bellow a picture.

Jean-François

Addélice postponed for 2 weeks the launch of its thermal circulator dedicated to sous vide.

The so called “swid” will be at € 489 incl. VAT and shipping costs. Addélice mentioned on Twitter the introductory price will be at € 449 incl. VAT and shipping! Therefore the swid becomes the most competitive  immersion circulator available on the market (click here for a price comparison of immersion circulators). For the record the swid includes a metal protective shield usually provided as an option by other manufacturer. I had the confirmation that the swid is available on 240 V (European standard) but will be manufactured for the North American market (120 V) soon.

The swid features disclosed by addélice are:

- 2,000 Watt heating power
- Circulation pump
- Built-in cooking timer
- Acoustic and optical alarms
- Adaptive PID algorithm
- Microprocessor-controlled
- Protective grid, low water level protection, overheating protection, max. cooking time limiter

Jean-François

Their is now a long time that I wanted to cook sous vide salmon with Turbigomme and a probe. Viktor Stampfer book indicates salmon should be cooked 54°C for 10 minutes (core temperature) with a 56°C water bath. In my former experiment I raised the time to 14 minutes, as I didn’t have any equipment to take the core temperature.

This time I purchased Turbigomme on a French site called svdiffusion.com. Turbigomme is a gum made to be glued on a pouch. The gum is supposed to be airtight if you go through with a probe. I bought it 8.85 euros (3 meters) + 10.94 euros shipping costs! I was really mad when I reallized that SVdiffusion cheated on shipping costs. Who can believe that a 110 gr parcel could be sent for 11 euros!

Anyway I have now everything: 4 cm Turbigomme piece, a 3 mm Mastrad probe (I know this is very thick but this is a cheap thermometer – less than 40 euros) , 2 rubbers to fix the Turbigomme in the case the self-adhesive would not be enough and a nice piece of salmon.

I glued the Turbigomme on the pouch, strapped it with rubbers and pierced the all with my 3 mm probe. I didn’t face any issue during this process. The pouch did not look like “loosing vacuum”.

During the cooking process I was doubting if air was not coming inside the pouch as I could see some bubbles appearing. I was feeling more comfortable when I saw the other salmon vacuum pouch I made without Turbigomme was doing the same…

To sum up I would say my experiment was successful. 8 euros Turbigomme (plus shipping costs!) and a cheap thermometer (40 euros max.) where enough compared to those very expensive 1 mm hypodermic thermocouples probes (approx. 200 euros) and thermometer.

My only issue was the cooking time. The starting temperature of the salmon was 8°C and it took 30 minutes to reach 54°C core temperature. My water bath was set at 56°C. I decided to take the salmon of the water bath as soon as the core temperature reached 54°C (instead of waiting 10 more minutes as suggested by Viktor Stampfer).

I was afraid the salmon would be overcooked. It was the case…nothing to do with a raw appearance salmon!

Next time I’ll try 72 hours pork ribs. No need of an internal probe for this kind of cooking!!!

Jean-François

Jean-François